England Goalkeeper, really??...

About as English as a glass of sangria and a bowl of paella while watching a bull fight before a siesta to recuperate for the flamenco at tonights fiesta.

But on a serious note anyone else had this??

The images are too small to read.

I used the zoom function on Firefox, it's Manuel Almunia with English nationality!!

If its about him being capped by england.

It has happened in quite a few of my games..

He's already said in real life that he thinks of himself as English and would love to play for them

He's already said in real life that he thinks of himself as English and would love to play for them

Ye i know, was still surprised to see it tho.

With the good goalkeepers already playing for his country I'd see him take the English nationality and playing for our team.

Dear me, how can you play with that skin?

Almunia qualifies for England, so Capello can pick him at any time

I am more surprised that he is the 1st choice, in reality he is poor by premier league standards.

Oh thought he was working towards becoming citizen.

Yeah has only happened once on any FM10 I have started!

Dear me, how can you play with that skin?

Almunia qualifies for England, so Capello can pick him at any time

Get bored easy, gets changed every 3/4 game weeks. You got any suggestions for any others??

Before you answer, I am aware there is a skinning thread.

I am England manager in 2013/2014, a few players have stated their desire to play for England after gaining the British Passport. Almunia is one of them, as is Enrique and a few others. I have yet to play any of them (as they are not good enough), so in the press i say i would only choose real English blah. But if a good player was to crop up, i would change my mind very quickly. World Cup 2014 England team is going to be hard to field. Every good player is now old (Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Ferdinand etc), only Rooney, Delph, Barry, A.Cole, A. Young, Shawcross, Richards are good enough. The rest i either play the golden oldies, or choose "Good Premier League players" in the form of Agbonlahor, Vaughan etc. I hope this wont happen in real life and a few more Rooneys will develope in the next 5 years, otherwise the World Cup 2010 will be the end of a unsuccessful golden era!

Perfectly legal, and IRL he's said that he wants to play for England

1 of my 17 year old players changed from English to Italian, well his name was Enrico Fiorucci I guess

I am England manager in 2013/2014, a few players have stated their desire to play for England after gaining the British Passport. Almunia is one of them, as is Enrique and a few others. I have yet to play any of them (as they are not good enough), so in the press i say i would only choose real English blah. But if a good player was to crop up, i would change my mind very quickly. World Cup 2014 England team is going to be hard to field. Every good player is now old (Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Ferdinand etc), only Rooney, Delph, Barry, A.Cole, A. Young, Shawcross, Richards are good enough. The rest i either play the golden oldies, or choose "Good Premier League players" in the form of Agbonlahor, Vaughan etc. I hope this wont happen in real life and a few more Rooneys will develope in the next 5 years, otherwise the World Cup 2010 will be the end of a unsuccessful golden era!

You should be using Gabby Adbonglahor anyway! Devastating on FM10, you cannot stop the speed machine. Play him upfront with Rooney, and Delfouneso comes on for him as an impact sub!

He changed his nationality to english on my England save but I decided not to pick him.

i had newcastle stiker xisco in the england squad on mine, bnut he never got capped.

he was on really bad form and newcastle were bottom of the league at the time, most goals he had in a season was 12 too

A little like Owen Hargreaves, although he was born with Welsh/English parents. He grew up in Canada and didn't join Bayern until he was 16.

Happened in my game, I managed England and gave Diamanti a few games in WC2014 as 4th striker and 3rd AMC.

Diamanti is class but start to get a little old by 2014

I got Mikel Arteta playing for England, I was SO happy

well y not consider almunia for an england call? i think hes better than most choices we have at the moment. shows how bad it is when david james is still in the squad

Joe Hart is pretty comparable to Almunia, albeit from different generations.

He's England No1 in my game too, he's doing no bad as well.

well y not consider almunia for an england call? i think hes better than most choices we have at the moment. shows how bad it is when david james is still in the squad

because Green and James are better than Almunia. In my opinion.

david james is still very erratic at best. fair 2 say if we had a half decent keeper then he wouldn't play for england.

its sad foster and green are also inconsistent and cant be relied upon. i do like hart but it seems were waiting for him to get more experience. almunia is a good short term solution

He is qualified for England, is one of the best "english" keepers around at the moment, and I personally think he should be our keeper for the next world cup.

If we can have lots of South African cricketers playing for our Cricket team, why can't we have a Spaniard playing for our football team?

Perfectly legal, and IRL he's said that he wants to play for England

1 of my 17 year old players changed from English to Italian, well his name was Enrico Fiorucci I guess

Sorry but disagree on the above. Its a UEFA and FIFA issue which is hidden behind a so called gentlemans agreement whereby no EU country shall pick a player from another EU country. Therefore its not (as stated) perfectly legal. EU doctrine dictates that every EU citizen is of equal nationality and subject only to his place of birth therefore he cannot change nationality within a member state. UEFA back this and FIFA back this even more so highly unlikely to happen.

On another matter, Almunia isnt good enough for International duty. I dont feel the issue is the goalie but more like a dodgy defence ahead of him who fail to communicate and position themselves accordingly. The OP claims to having old players and yet places A Cole in the young bracket...the guys 30ish, no spring chicken by any means!

This has happened on my game too and he got the best keeper award for the 2010 World Cup so he can't be that bad

This has happened on my game too and he got the best keeper award for the 2010 World Cup so he can't be that bad

He's better than some others but he's not World Class. Only medals to his name pre-Arsenal were second division best keeper twice, didnt even make the first division!

If we can have lots of South African cricketers playing for our Cricket team, why can't we have a Spaniard playing for our football team?

Because of a silly pointless gentleman's agreement between the home nations.

He is qualified for England, is one of the best "english" keepers around at the moment, and I personally think he should be our keeper for the next world cup.

If we can have lots of South African cricketers playing for our Cricket team, why can't we have a Spaniard playing for our football team?

Because of a silly pointless gentleman's agreement between the home nations.

Not exactly. South Africa is not the EU, the gentlemans agreement is to cover the fact that EU law would make this a shambles so as not to make things worse they stick to the gentlemans agreement.

what goalkeeper have england got that is 'world class' ? sorry but its the weakest area of the team and probably get found out against decent opposition

Almunia was England no 1 on mine for the first 2 seasons before being ousted by an in-form Joe Hart... He's playing so well Ochoa can't get a look in at my Villa team.

In terms of this EU "gentleman's agreement"... Not sure that exists... Simone Perrotta being one (maybe isolated) instance that springs to mind... Although I think he may have 2 Italian parents... not sure.

On my game as England Manager I capped Almunia untill a great newgen came along.

Also capped José Enrique and Javier Garrido at left back.

And Alessandro Diamanti for a couple of years, even though he was getting on a bit, as he was top scorer in the Premiership.

Didier Digard is also eligible for England but I have plenty of options in that position!

I'm in the 10th season and England are still using Ben Foster as first choice even though he's 35 years old and hasn't played a single game for my Man Utd in a few seasons. That said the GK newgens in my game have been very very bad apart from an Italian gem that Man City beat me to.

almunia was called up to england squad and played in world cup, and won best keeper of tournament, an injury ruled him out of the final, and i sold him to Liverpool for 7.5m euros shortly after

hes the english goal keeper on mine even tho there a amazing regen who is doing better but dosnt get a game for england so far

I've had a few Spanish regens end up playing for England as we're crap on my save. (23rd in world rankings)

where did u get that skin? i used 2 use a similar 1 on 09 but cant find it anywhere

Steve Harper is the best English 'keeper around (IRL IMHO).

Sorry but disagree on the above. Its a UEFA and FIFA issue which is hidden behind a so called gentlemans agreement whereby no EU country shall pick a player from another EU country. Therefore its not (as stated) perfectly legal. EU doctrine dictates that every EU citizen is of equal nationality and subject only to his place of birth therefore he cannot change nationality within a member state. UEFA back this and FIFA back this even more so highly unlikely to happen.

It's nothing to do with UEFA or FIFA, it's just an agreement between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland because when you because nationalised here you become British rather than English, Scottish, etc. So the gentleman's agreement is in place between the four countries to stop them fighting over a nationalised player.

England would be perfectly entitled to call up anybody they wanted, Eriksson wanted to call up Cudicini, Malbranque, Edu and Saha.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7702704.stm

He's already said in real life that he thinks of himself as English and would love to play for them

Over my dead body.

Over my dead body.

... You're already dead...

I gave Almunia, Jose Enrique and Aaron Doran (Irish) England caps on my game - I'm England boss. I say if they're good enough, who cares where they're from?

... You're already dead...

Damnit!

Almunia for England it is then.

Just checked on my current save, and he's been called up on mine as well - made his debut in mid-2010 against Denmark.

I gave Almunia, Jose Enrique and Aaron Doran (Irish) England caps on my game - I'm England boss. I say if they're good enough, who cares where they're from?

The fact it's international football, maybe? That is quite a silly thing to say, in my opinion. What's the point in having football competitions between different countries if players can change their nationality without having any link to their new nation, other than the fact that they wouldn't mind playing international football but aren't quite good enough to play for their actual nation?

Almunia isn't English. He wasn't brought up in England and he doesn't have any English parentage. He wasn't developed by the English youth system either, so England can take no credit for him as a footballer. The only link he has to England is that he has been working in the country for six years. He is still Spanish. The only reason he wants to play for England is not because he now "feels English" instead of Spanish, but because he would rather like to play in a major international tournament but has zero chance of doing it with Spain.

It's bad enough you get coaches managing foreign countries, let alone players playing for foreign countries.

I think i may have to halt this abomination in my save by creating a manager to manage Spain. I'll call him up for a game, make him ineligible for England and then retire.

I called almunia up myself and won the world cup with him as my main GK for england. The tragic thing is, he was alot better than any of the other GK's I had to choose from.

The fact it's international football, maybe? That is quite a silly thing to say, in my opinion. What's the point in having football competitions between different countries if players can change their nationality without having any link to their new nation, other than the fact that they wouldn't mind playing international football but aren't quite good enough to play for their actual nation?

Almunia isn't English. He wasn't brought up in England and he doesn't have any English parentage. He wasn't developed by the English youth system either, so England can take no credit for him as a footballer. The only link he has to England is that he has been working in the country for six years. He is still Spanish. The only reason he wants to play for England is not because he now "feels English" instead of Spanish, but because he would rather like to play in a major international tournament but has zero chance of doing it with Spain.

It's bad enough you get coaches managing foreign countries, let alone players playing for foreign countries.

I think i may have to halt this abomination in my save by creating a manager to manage Spain. I'll call him up for a game, make him ineligible for England and then retire.

I agree with this.

Having parents of Ghanaian heritage, (though born and bred here) It hurts when I see some talent playing for the bigger nations just because they can through eligibility.

I think the footballing playing field would be alot more level if people played for their actual nations, obviously some players will get the bly if they were born and raised in a certain country.

But then again a Ghanaian manager? no thanks

steve harper is the best english 'keeper around (irl imho).

agreed! (imho, idst)